PRESS RELEASE – Physicians Are Healers Not Killers

PRESS RELEASE. August 7, 2017

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) and the American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) represent over 6,000 physicians and healthcare professionals who applaud the American Medical Association’s (AMA) current ban on physician assisted suicide and euthanasia. Together we urge the AMA’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) to uphold its staunch opposition to these deadly practices. Assisting in or directly causing the death of our patients violates the long standing medical ethics principle of first do no harm. Killing is diametrically opposed to the role of physicians as healers. For these reasons, even the adoption of a “neutral stance” is unconscionable.

The prohibition against giving a poison dates from Hippocrates (ca 400 BC) and expresses a superior wisdom that physicians should not decide to actively end lives. Legalizing assisted suicide permits a two-party transaction abetting a suicidal act. Disguised as promoting patient autonomy, these laws permit physicians a very active role in ending lives…